MovieFactory 6+ Crashes when importing AVCHD content

etech6355 · Post by **etech6355** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 9:18 pm

I think it's a shame that windows is still so fragile when it comes to Multi-Media. This makes helping someone with problems next to impossilble.
Between Directx, video drivers, codecs it's very time consuming to troubleshoot. ATI provides video/audio codecs with it's Catalyst Software because many ATI video cards can capture video & audio. When you have a system working properly with an ATI card updating to the newest Catalyst driver can cause problems. Once I find a driver that works with my ATI card I stay with it. Most updates to the ATI software are for fixing games. NVidia has similar issues.

You may have to grab another hard disk & re-install windows, using the original drivers for the video card, Directx 9.0C, November 2007, then MF6+ retail with the updates.

When a user posts how to use MF6+ and perform edits, author disks this is easy for someone to provide assistance. If a user is having computer problems or the program isn't working correctly it's very hard to provide assistance or feedback because windows itself is so complex.

I've installed MF6+ on a few computers and they all work importing avchd or inserting the files directly into the timeline. So it has to be a windows issue and other programs installed on the computer that's causing these problems to occur.

The only thing I can suggest is to limit the amount of video/audio programs one installs on windows so they do not conflict with each other.

Dobs · Post by **Dobs** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 8:21 pm

etech6355 wrote:I think it's a shame that windows is still so fragile when it comes to Multi-Media....

You're not kidding. I've been trying to figure out this issue for a month now. I am actually almost ready to concede and buy a new PC (I was thinking about it before this anyway). At least then I can start from scratch and eliminate any possible software conflicts.

Also, I am discussing this issue on another forum and someone noticed that all of us that are having problems seem to be using slightly older Athlons, so the idea was presented that maybe the AVCHD support in MF6+ requires a processor that supports the SSE2 instruction set (Intel started supporting this with their Pentium 4s and Pentium Ms, AMD didn't start supporting it until their 64 bit chips). If this is the case, anyone with a 6 year old or newer Intel would work just fine, but anyone with a 4 year old AMD chip wouldn't work. I have no idea if this is the cause or not, but I tried it on three machines, two AMDs (the most recent an Athlon 300+ XP) and an Intel (Pentium M). The Intel works completely fine. The two AMDs don't.

volker2311 · Post by **volker2311** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 9:50 pm

Dobs wrote:
volker2311 wrote:Hello - i tried the demo version and had the same experience.

i also exchanged the h264***.dll but that leads to DVD capability only -
i need AVCHD

Question: has this issue been resolved ?

If yes, I will buy

thanks
Not yet. I still have an open ticket with Corel/Ulead support. If they come back to me with a resolution, I'll post an update. In the meantime, I'm still open to suggestions for other things to try.

Not fixed yet ? unbelievable - the product is useless without a fix ! please inform me when it works, i appreciate it

Dobs · Post by **Dobs** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 8:19 pm

volker2311 wrote:Not fixed yet ? unbelievable - the product is useless without a fix ! please inform me when it works, i appreciate it

Ulead/Corel support has been horrible with this issue. They had me reinstall about 5 times and eventually told me I had to call in. I called in, and after 5 minutes they didn't know either and told me they would email me back. Never got an email back. So I emailed them. They told me I had to open a new ticket (I argued this with them but eventually had to open up a new one anyway). Of course, as soon as I did that, they started everything back from the beginning (even though I had told them I already done all those steps). Then they told me I had to call in again. I have pretty much given up at this point. I was planning on buying a new PC this year anyway, so that is what I did (getting shipped tomorrow). Hopefully it works on that one.

There are various other forums out their that speculate that AVCHD with MF requires a processor that supports the SSE2 instruction set. That seems to be my experience as well, as I am getting this problem with both PCs that do not support SSE2 and the third PC that does support it works fine. I don't know if anyone else has any feedback on this, but that seems to be the most likely scenario to me (by the way, I also suggested that as a possibility to Ulead support, but they completely disregarded it and asked me to reinstall again)

volker2311 · Post by **volker2311** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 8:40 pm

thanks - at least that is an angle - i have an 'old ' athlon, but do consider to buy a new pc (dual or quad core intel).

if i could confirm that the cpu is the issue would at least help

Dobs · Post by **Dobs** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 9:02 pm

volker2311 wrote:thanks - at least that is an angle - i have an 'old ' athlon, but do consider to buy a new pc (dual or quad core intel).

if i could confirm that the cpu is the issue would at least help

Has anyone gotten AVCHD content to import with MF6 on an older Athlon such as their XP line?

etech6355 · Post by **etech6355** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 1:31 am

Dobs,
Can you perform a search for H264* under the "Program Files -> Ulead Systems" and post back the results (notice the wildcard * in the search criteria).

Then do the same search under "Program Files -> Common Files -> Ulead Systems"

So I need to know what files are located under the common files folders and also the MF folder where the program executes and runs from.
If you could also provide the version number, date & size of the files would help. Specifically concerned with the H264VDecHPDll.dll

There are other suggestions on this forum related to that file. I wouldn't use those suggestions yet because MF itself needs it's own H264VDecHPDll.dll file that was compiled for it. There is another file that also starts with H264, between these files along with the mpeg encoder they are used to read & write the avc/h264 format.

Anyway I may have a suggestion to test out, I had similar problems under Vista and had 2 of these files conflicting I guess.
But make sure you have the Retail MF6+ along with Patch# 2 installed.

I don't have any AMD's to test MF6+ on, I can verify that it does uses all 4 processors on an Intel Q6600 quad Cpu at high cpu usage, so the code definitely was compiled to use the latest processors. But even using an Intel processor when any of those files conflict the program immediately crashed on my system.

Has anyone gotten AVCHD content to import with MF6 on an older Athlon such as their XP line?

Do you mean IMPORT From DVD/-VR avchd disk OR Inserting avc/h264 videos directly into the timeline, there is a difference between importing & inserting, this is where my system was having problems, using the IMPORT from DVD function on AVCHD disks.

Dobs · Post by **Dobs** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 6:17 pm

etech6355 wrote:Can you perform a search for H264* under the "Program Files -> Ulead Systems" and post back the results (notice the wildcard * in the search criteria).

Then do the same search under "Program Files -> Common Files -> Ulead Systems"
.

Yeah, that was my first guess. I actually had gone to the point of uninstalling every Ulead, Intervideo and Corel piece of software I had (and then verifying that this DLL no longer existed anywhere on my computer, and them installing only MF6+. I made sure to install all the patches in the proper order and that didn't help. But to answer your question:

The one in the MF directory doesn't have a version, but it is 689 K, dated 1/18/2007. The one in the common folder is version 1.1.1.65. Both of these where installed by the MF6 intallation. I've tried numerous different versions of this dll in both directories and none have helped.

etech6355 wrote:Do you mean IMPORT From DVD/-VR avchd disk OR Inserting avc/h264 videos directly into the timeline, there is a difference between importing & inserting, this is where my system was having problems, using the IMPORT from DVD function on AVCHD disks.

I was having problems doing either one. I got the same error message with both.

Also, just to update. My new PC came in yesterday. I also got a Q6600 (love it so far). I am having absolutely no problems with MF6 and my AVCHD content on it.

etech6355 · Post by **etech6355** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 8:50 pm

On the PC with the problem that has 2 copies on the harddisk.
Leave the original one in the common files folder.
Rename the one in the MF6+ executable directory.
By the way, The one that exists under the common files folder is in your windows PATH statement, under the MPEG directory.

I had problems with that H264 file being in the executable directory under Vista. Importing avchd would lock when I hit the Clip Icon in the import screen (after MF reads the avchd disk).
Then again I do have a few avc/h264 files that are probably corrupt & MF bails out on them. The corruption is at the beginning of the avc/h264 file.

But rename that H264VDecHPDll.dll file located under the MF6+ executable directory to H264VDecHPDll.dll_MF6Backup or similar so MF6+ doesn't use it.

Also sometimes under Vista when you do this Vista may see this and try to restore the original file. you may have to check that, doesn't always happen.

Yes, i recently bought a Q6600 machine, very satisfied with it. It's very hard trying to work with avc/h264 if you don't have at least a Core2-Duo or Core2-Quad one. I doubt I would even bother because my P4's take to long for conversions.

Just a note, if I do not rename that above file I can still insert avc/h264 vidoes, convert and all. It only caused the lockups trying to import avchd disks.

Dobs · Post by **Dobs** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 8:09 pm

etech6355 wrote:On the PC with the problem that has 2 copies on the harddisk.
Leave the original one in the common files folder.
Rename the one in the MF6+ executable directory.

Same error.

trevorjharris · Post by **trevorjharris** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 11:25 am

I have found the same problem MF hangs when re importing avchd m2ts streams. I have found the same problem with files generated by Nero 8 and the MainConcept Plugin for Premiere Pro. Oddly enough the file exported from MF6 can be imported into Nero 8 Vision and will burn an avchd disc.

I have found that 2 icons for the Haali media splitter appear in my task bar when this happens. So I suspect that MF6 is trying to split the streams when it crashes.

I only have one verion of the H264... file on my system.

trevorjharris · Post by **trevorjharris** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 1:27 pm

I don't know if this will work for everyone but I deinstalled Haali Media Splitter and MF6 imported the file ok.

There seems to be confilict between Haali Media Splitter and MF6

etech6355 · Post by **etech6355** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 3:46 pm

I don't know if this will work for everyone but I deinstalled Haali Media Splitter and MF6 imported the file ok.

Thanks for posting that information. Windows is complex and fragile when it comes to video/audio codecs. We don't easily have a lot of control over all the settings.
When we install video/audio codecs they are usually globally shared by the windows system and many codecs conflict with each other, or don't work correctly with DirectX (except in their own environment).

I haven't found an easy answer to this problem except don't install video/audio apps that you really don't need such as the free codec fix-em-all packs.

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 2:53 am

You may be interested in this link
Fix: Import DVD (VOB) Files DMF/VS/MSP

If you use AVCHD then you should NOT use the fix.
Alternatively if you use both Standard Definition source files and also AVCHD source files then there is a work round by using a good old fashioned DOS "BAT" file to rename two versions of the file according to which format you happen to be working with.

This is made even easier if you use a FREE piece of software named Batch Run

Alludo USER to USER Web Board

MovieFactory 6+ Crashes when importing AVCHD content

Same problem

Fixed